Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 October 1893 — HE ROBBED THE MINT. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HE ROBBED THE MINT.

Henry S. Cochran, Who Stole Over 8100,000 from the Government. Henry S. Cochran, who confessed that he stole over SIOO,OOO worth of gold bullion from the government, has for forty years been employed as Weighing Clerk In the Philadelphia Mint. The vault from which the bullion was extracted was sealed in 1878, and not until it was opened recently was the theft discovered. Ever since the vault was sealed Mr. Cochran has been engaged in taking the gold. By means of a crooked wire he pulled the bullion bars from the top of a pile where they were placed crosswise like railroad ties. When they fell on the floor he would, by means of his hook, pull the bars to the iron latticed door, the bottom of which was a little loose on one side. As the gold bars only weigh from twelve to fifteen pounds each, he could carry them home secreted in his lunch basket. His later stealings Mr. Cochran hid in a ventilator loft of the mint, and here the gold was discovered after his confession.. Some of the gold he sent to himself at the mint by express, and when it arrived he had it coined. When Secretary Carlisle’s order was received ordering the coining of the gold bullion in the mint, Cochran manifested great uneasiness, and even went to Washington and begged the mint authorities there to persuade the Secre-

tary to countermand his order. This, they told him, was impossible, and Mr. Cochran returned home. Suspicion was aroused bj' Mr. Cochran’s course of action and a detective was sent to Philadelphia from Washington. To him Mr. Cochran confessed his crime; $134,093.40 is the exact value of the bullion taken.

HENRY S. COCHRAN.